World Refugee Day June 20

World Refugee Day June 20

Settlement Orientation Services (SOS) in partnership with ISSofBC and the Vancouver Public Library, is hosting a free community event on June 20, 2014 to celebrate World Refugee Day.

The program focuses on the sharing of personal stories of the refugee experience: stories of courage, resilience and inspiration that show the universal emotions each refugee experiences when faced with the possibility of losing everything before starting a new life from scratch.

The event will take place at the Library’s Main Branch in Downtown Vancouver and will feature a keynote address by UBC President Stephen Toope and a proclamation of World Refugee Day by Deputy Mayor Raymond Louie.

There will also be a Refugee Services Info Fair on the Library Promenade, with representatives of organizations and agencies that work with refugees and refugee claimants in BC. Visitors will also have a chance to hear from refugees directly in the “Living Books” event – an interactive story telling setting in which refugees and those involved in the refugee claim process share their experiences and answer questions that visitors may have.

What: World Refugee Day 2014 – One Family Torn Apart By War Is Too Many